In the following essay, Fetterley states that the character of Catherine is a scapegoat for Frederic's hostility rather than a true object of romantic love, providing a way for Frederic to avoid commitment.

I

Once upon a time there was a writer who told the truth. He wrote a story called “Indian Camp” and in that story a little boy watches his doctor-father perform a contemptuous and grotesque Caesarean section on an Indian woman while her husband in the bunk above slits his throat. Like “I Want to Know Why,” “Indian Camp” is a story of initiation, and in it Nick Adams is given a lesson in the meaning of growing up male in America: “‘That's one for the medical journal, George,’ he said. ‘Doing...